IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race 1
IndyCar GP Indy: Rossi leads Harvey in opening practice
First practice for the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis saw Alexander Rossi put his Andretti Autosport-Honda on top of the times, just ahead of Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing entry.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: May 15, 2021, 1:45 PM
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Following the news that Max Chilton’s Carlin-Chevrolet won’t be taking part in this weekend’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the car count in opening practice was further reduced when Alex Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda sprung a water leak and was towed back to the garage area.
Then Sebastien Bourdais’ AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet ground to a halt on its third lap due to an electrical problem, and therefore was penalized for five minutes having caused a red flag. That was a moot point, however, as he never returned to action.
Rinus VeeKay, who set his first pole position and scored his first podium at this venue in last October’s Harvest Grand Prix, sat at the top of the times for most of the session. The #21 Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet turned a 70.0624sec 125.323mph on its fifth lap of the 14-turn, 2.439-mile track with Josef Newgarden’s Team Penske-Chevrolet sitting just 0.0019sec adrift – the pair of them 0.34sec clear of the field.
Then Alexander Rossi got within the same tenth, having earlier had a trip off road and then his #27 Andretti Autosport-Honda ducked under the 70sec barrier with a 69.8784 on his 11th lap.
Semi-teammate Jack Harvey, front-row starter here last year, went second quickest for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, also getting down to a 69sec lap, while Colton Herta left it until his last lap to grab sixth, behind Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda.
Rookie Scott McLaughlin made it two Team Penske-Chevrolets in seventh ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the third Andretti car.
Graham Rahal survived a puncture and a spin to claim ninth but was unhappy with his car’s handling, while Conor Daly in the second ECR-Chevy claimed 10th.
Will Power, five-time IMS road course polesitter and four-time winner, was only 13th fastest but still ahead of championship leader and defending champion Scott Dixon.
Also looking uncharacteristically slow – relatively speaking – were the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. Their temporary teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya – who hasn’t started an IndyCar road course race since 2016 – was 0.6sec off Rosenqvist, and a couple of tenths ahead of NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson in the Ganassi-Honda. He took the checkered flag twice, so will be forced to sit out the first five minutes of second practice.
Second practice will begin at 1pm local (Eastern) time, with qualifying set to start at 4.45pm.
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph 1 Alexander Rossi
Andretti Autosport 12 1'09.878 125.653 2
Jack Harvey
Meyer Shank Racing 17 1'09.964 0.086 125.498 3
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ed Carpenter Racing 20 1'10.062 0.184 125.323 4
Josef Newgarden
Team Penske 15 1'10.064 0.185 125.319 5
Romain Grosjean
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR 17 1'10.158 0.280 125.151 6 Colton Herta
Andretti Autosport 15 1'10.225 0.346 125.032 7
Scott McLaughlin
Team Penske 21 1'10.304 0.426 124.891 8
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Autosport 15 1'10.435 0.557 124.659 9
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 1'10.474 0.595 124.590 10
Conor Daly
Ed Carpenter Racing 14 1'10.499 0.621 124.545 11
Simon Pagenaud
Team Penske 14 1'10.510 0.631 124.527 12
Ed Jones
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 13 1'10.554 0.675 124.449 13 Will Power
Team Penske 13 1'10.704 0.826 124.184 14
James Hinchcliffe
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport 14 1'10.725 0.847 124.147 15 Marcus Ericsson
Chip Ganassi Racing 11 1'10.729 0.850 124.141 16
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing 13 1'10.772 0.894 124.065 17
Takuma Sato
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 16 1'10.800 0.922 124.015 18
Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 11 1'10.813 0.934 123.994 19 Dalton Kellett
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18 1'10.864 0.985 123.905 20
Felix Rosenqvist
Arrow McLaren SP 14 1'10.965 1.087 123.728 21 Juan Pablo Montoya
Arrow McLaren SP 13 1'11.483 1.604 122.831 22 Jimmie Johnson
Chip Ganassi Racing 22 1'11.687 1.808 122.482 23
Charlie Kimball
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 4 1'12.200 2.322 121.612 24
Sébastien Bourdais
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 3 1'30.866 20.988 96.629 25
Alex Palou
Chip Ganassi Racing 0 26
Max Chilton
Carlin 0 View full results
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